U.S. Fines 500 Mine Companies for False Air Tests

By PHILIP J. HILTS, Special to The New York Times

Published: April 5, 1991

WASHINGTON, April 4—
Saying that the lives of coal miners were jeopardized by mining companies' fraud, the Labor Department announced today that it was levying $5 million in penalties against 500 mining companies for tampering with the coal dust samples that Federal inspectors test for the risk of black lung disease.

In the past year and a half, the department said, it received 4,710 faked samples from 847 coal mines across the country, or 40 percent of the mines that the Government is charged with sampling.

"I am appalled at the flagrant disregard for a law designed to protect coal miners against disabling lung disease," the Labor Secretary, Lynn Martin, said at a press conference in Washington today. "Altering test results could place lives in jeopardy. We must take strong enforcement action, both punitive and preventative."

In addition to the fines of $1,000 per violation, the department has begun 17 criminal investigations, which could result in further fines as well as jail terms for those responsible for tampering with the samples. 'An Addiction to Cheat'

The most worrisome aspect of the finding announced today, Mrs. Martin said, "is the broad nature of the violations."

"Mines in West Virginia, for instance, had 243 mines in violation," she said. "It seems almost an addiction to cheat at some mines."

Labor advocates generally welcomed the action, though some said it did not go far enough. They noted that while the fines were the largest ever levied by the Federal agency that oversees mines, they were still far below the maximum, which is $10,000 to $50,000 for each tampering violation, depending on the date of the offense.

The five companies identified with the greatest number of violations were the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company, Consolidation Coal Company, Ziegler Coal Holding Company, Dofasco Incorporated, and Occidental Petroleum Company.

The mining companies denied wrongdoing and suggested that there might be something wrong with the Government's sampling devices.

Consolidation Coal, the company with the second-greatest number of violations and the largest coal mining company in the country, said through a spokesman today that it would contest "every one" of the more than 400 violations charged against 22 of its mines.

"We believe the Government's contention of an industry-wide conspiracy lacks the credibility that common sense would demand," said Thomas F. Hoffman, vice president for the company, which is based in Pittsburgh and owned by E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company.

Richard L. Lawson, president of the National Coal Association, suggested that problems with the dust samples might have come from shipping, handling or outdated equipment.

"We, frankly, can't believe that this is tampering," Mr. Lawson said at a news conference today. "There has to be some other kind of reasons involved. We don't understand it."

The inhalation of coal dust can cause black lung disease, and one estimate suggests that 10,000 of the 160,000 miners currently working have X-ray evidence of the beginnings of the crippling and often fatal disease. About 260,000 miners receive benefits for the disease, and perhaps as many as 4,000 retired miners die from the illness or its complication each year. .

Federal regulations require mines to keep dust levels in the shafts below 2 milligrams per cubic meter of air. Samples are taken in more than 2,000 mines across the nation and are inspected by the Mine Safety and Health Administration of the Department of Labor.

The samples are taken by placing circular "cassettes" about the size of a half dollar in various places in the mine. The clear plastic cassettes contain a filter that collects coal dust as air is pushed through it by a small pump.

According to the mine safety agency, mine operators had been vacuuming the filters or spraying them before use with the household dust-reducing product Endust to keep them from accumulating a dense black circle of coal dust. Discovery of high levels of coal dust can lead to the mine's shutdown.

The agency began the investigation in February 1989 when an inspector at a Peabody Coal mine in Mount Hope, W.Va., noticed that the filter in a cassette was protruding as if it had been partly sucked out of its container.

In August 1989, all cassettes from the company's mines were checked, and "we got our biggest shock," said Edward C. Hugler, Deputy Administrator for Coal Mine Safety and Health in the mine safety agency. "We got these kind of samples from mines all over the country." He said eight percent of all the filters showed signs of having been cleaned of coal dust.

The agency began sending notices to companies of the violations, and by March of 1990, Mr. Hugler said, the number of violations suddenly began to drop to its current level, which is near zero. "That to us is a clear indication that the tampering was intentional," he said.

Davitt McAteer, executive director of the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center, a non-profit public interest law firm in Washington, said the fines levied were too small to have a serious effect on the companies involved, with the fines averaging $10,000 per company. Because one mine shift typically produces $20,000 in coal, a single shift might cover the cost of the penalties.

Mr. McAteer added: "We need to change the way the samples are taken. We need to change the way they are delivered to the Government."

Chart: "Safety Tampering" Total coal mines in the U.S.: 4,645 The Government says that some air filters were cleaned before the samples were sent to the Labor Department. Source: Labor Department